Weekly Report - 13 March 2008 (ISSN 1741-7422)

Just as it appeared that the dispute between Colombia, on the one hand, and Ecuador and Venezuela, on the other, could spiral out of control, it was promptly resolved. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez , revelling in his role as an international statesman with a defining influence on events, was widely heralded as a peacemaker par excellence. It is safe to say that never before had so much been achieved in a seven-hour summit of the Rio Group. The tension was palpable in the early exchanges between Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe and his Ecuadorean peer Rafael Correa, but by the end, all of the principal protagonists had shaken hands and embraced.